classic

SWITCHconnect classic was the first variant of this service available in Switzerland. The goal is to provide mutual access to ones own university network resources at locations of another university. The accessible network resources typically also includes Internet access.

SWITCHconnect classic is today considered a legacy service and merely acts as the technical base for PWLAN.

SWITCHconnect classic infrastructure

The infrastructure is based on a open (wired or wireless) guest network connection that does not employ any authentication. This network allows only connections to the VPN servers of the universities. Wireless networks are named 'public-<university name>'.

The list of VPN servers to which the connections must be allowed is maintained by SWITCH and periodically synchronized by all participants.

A user wanting to connect first establishes a connection to the guest network. He then starts the VPN client of his home university and connects to the university network. The user now has access to the network resources of his home university. Traffic to the Internet is now routed via the home university too.